Eine Zweite Chance
by Grace Tempest
Summary: Heatedly she stood up and started toward the door, and as fast as she had come back into his life she was about walk back out again. Max/OC


**Eine Zweite Chance**

From across the street he sees a familiar face, this is rare. "Vera Fischer?" he yells suddenly elated with desire. The Mädchen turns, and upon seeing him (in a very ungraceful manner) rushes across the road. Without stopping she embraces him with such vigor he's forced to take a step back. "Wie geht's Max!?" _How are you Max!?_ She gushes happily, still enveloping him in a hug. He leans into her embrace smiling into her shoulder.

"Ich bin jetzt gut." _I'm good now. _He can tell she's rolling her eyes at the ridiculous notion that she had made someone's day. He sighs she always did have a lack of confidence. "Ich bin jetzt gut." He repeats his statement so quietly he's not even sure if it was in his head or not, but it's true he hasn't felt like this since long before the war. He had long since felt comfort in a human touch, and now he craves it, he craves it like a child craves the smile of its mother. Reluctantly they let go but still stand within a few inches of each other, still trying to gage if what their seeing is real or not.

His body and soul now pleads to be brought back to the warmth of her passionate display. He'd always denied himself what he wanted the most and now here it was within arm's length of him waiting to be wooed back into his awaiting arms. 'Nein!' _No! _His mentality screams, she was never his for the taking. She had always belonged to Walter. Even before he had loved her, Walter had. In fact one of their past matches had been over her (not that either party had the fortitude to tell her what her two best friends had exchanged blows over). And looking back he should've fought harder to obtain her affection, and not just in brawl.

He knew it wasn't morally correct to pine after one's best friend's girl, but it was still a comforting sight to see that she still had no ring adorning her left hand, that for sure would have killed him.

"Ich jetzt wohne in München." _I live in Munich now. _She says finally breaking the silence that had fallen over them like the now nightly Deutsch snow. He smiles at this because he knew that this meant the start of something. "Ich auch." _Me too. _He tells her, but suddenly something weighs heavily on his conciseness. "Du und Walter…" _You and Walter…_ he can't make himself finish so he leaves the question in the air like a heavy rain cloud. This was the moment of truth he had thought he wanted.

She shakes her head with a sigh of either melancholy or bitterness, he cannot tell and doesn't have the backbone to ask. "Nein." She whispers suddenly looking dead into his eyes. As guilty as he feels about being happy about this, he can't deny how guilty he feels about not feeling guilty.

"Es tut mir Leid" _I am sorry._ 'Nein, du sind nicht!' _No you're not! _The moral part of his being screams. "Es ist egal" _It makes no difference_, she shrugs.

But it made a world of difference to him.

"Immerhin." _All the same, _he mutters.

"Danke." _Thank you. _

A brusque silence fell upon the patrons of the exchange, the lively sounds of Munich were nothing more than fleeting disregard to him. Out of nowhere tears fell from her eyes, his fingers hurried to catch them before they left her delicate porcelain face, as if they were precious crystal shards.

"Was ist los?" _What's wrong? _He inquires soothingly, he realizes that she had finally left her serene façade behind and given into her pure feelings. She attempts to rebury the unexpected emotion that has sprung through portico of her eyes. She tries to speak but is so heavily laden with sudden grief she is paralyzed from uttering a single word.

He takes her hand and leads her blindly to a diminutive café and sits her next to him. "Was ist los?" he asks again. "Nichts" _Nothing._ She sniffs trying and failing to keep her emotions in check, but he is stubborn and will not give up on her like so many have already. "Bitte legen Sie sich nicht zu mir." _Please don't lie to me._ "Wir sind beide zu viele gehört haben bereits" _We've both heard too many already. _She can't find it in herself to disagree with him because she knows that he speaks the truth.

They sit in silence that is a thick as the snow on the ground in the early morning before it is pounded down by the wiry travelers that so mindlessly trek upon it. In the back the owner coughs loudly to get Max's attention he begrudgingly gets up, pulling out the last of the bills in his pocket hand a couple over to the man and requested tea for his friend. After being handed the hot liquid Max Vandenberg returns to the now sobbing girl. _Woman_ he corrects himself, for there is no girlishness left in her features. They had long been stripped away by the Nazi's war. He now finds it impossible not to stare at her, and he longs once more to stare into those eyes that he had dreamt about all those years in hiding, those beautiful sapphire eyes. He shamelessly begins to study her again when she lets out once last sob and quietly utters "Wann hat die Welt gehen, um schiße?" _When did the world go to shit?_ He can't help it he laughs, it's a dark laugh but a combustion of humor none-the-less. She stares up at him with pleading eyes, she wants an answer.

"Ehrlich? Ich weiß nicht Vera." _Honestly? I don't know Vera_. "Ich weiß es einfach nicht" _I just don't know. _ But she can't accept this and probes him further. "Haben wir geschehen lassen?" _Did we let this happen?_ He is struck by this question and out of the blue he is angry. "Ich habe nicht die Antworten!" _I don't have the answers!_ Angry at Hitler for all the suffering, angry at the Germans for sitting by and letting this happen, angry at his father for being courageous instead of in his life, and most of all angry at himself for overacting, she simply wanted answers to things he didn't know how to respond to.

Heatedly she stood up and started toward the door, and as fast as she had come back into his life she was about walk back out again. Stunned all he could do was sit there until the sound of a slamming door brought him back into reality. "Schiße!" _Shit! _He made a mad dash outside turning side to side trying to find which direction she went and once he saw her he ran. He ran like he had never run in his life. "VERA!" He shouted but she did not turn around. "VERA!" Still she did not listen as she was about to cross the street he uttered the truest thing that had ever crossed his lips. "ICH LIEBE DICH VERA!" _I love you Vera!_

She stopped dead in her tracks.

She closed her eyes and forced herself to believe that her mind was tricking her. It wasn't long before she felt his warm gaunt arms wrap around her and finally she collapsed into his chest. "Ich liebe dich Vera, ich kann nicht sehen Sie gehen wieder weg." _I love you Vera, I can't watch you walk away again. _She looked into his muddy eyes and saw they too were glazed over with tears. "Ich liebe dich auch Max. Für immer." _I love you too Max. Forever._ Those words eternally echoed in his mind.

_Das Ende._


End file.
